BlackRock Charged With Removing Whistleblower Incentives In Separation Deals

(RTTNews) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that New York-based asset manager BlackRock Inc. (BLK) has agreed to pay a $340,000 penalty to settle charges that it improperly used separation agreements in which exiting employees were forced to waive their ability to obtain whistleblower awards.

According to the SEC's order, more than 1,000 departing BlackRock employees signed separation agreements containing violative language stating that they "waive any right to recovery of incentives for reporting of misconduct" in order to receive their monetary separation payments from the firm.

BlackRock added the waiver provision in October 2011 after the SEC adopted its whistleblower program rules, and the firm continued using it in separation agreements until March 2016.